


The New Journey

by Billywick



Category: Defense of the Ancients | Dota, Dota 2
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 21:53:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10396986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Billywick/pseuds/Billywick
Summary: The war of the ancients drew all manner of hero, villain and everything in between. Demon, god, deity, spirit, benign or vengeful...everything congregated here. It was a giant battle for the ages. How Sun Wukong had managed to keep himself away from it for so long was a mystery, one he couldn’t solve for lack of trying.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maelikki](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Maelikki).



> The simple idea behind this is: Monkey King helped young Magina get a sacred relic to the Turstarkori monastery akin to Journey to the West bec Magina is a monk and Monkey King is cute.

 

Now he knew what drew him here. And that was a mystery he didn’t want to have solved so quickly. From the moment he accepted the binding into the war and entered what was known as the Radiant Camp. Unknown faces, voices, some familiar in a distant way, there was only one that stuck out.

Half-heartedly, Sun Wukong glanced skywards, but no larger than life visages came to deliver wisdoms to him today. Had this been the plan all along? To unite him with...

_Him._

 

His heart betrayed him with one beat, more excited than the others. Much had changed. He had changed! He’d been free, doing as he wanted, not doing what others wanted, free and wild and...lost.

The simple golden hoop felt as if it weighed a mountain. Another mountain. Why had he not taken it off? He was free, he’d done the bidding, he’d fulfilled the journey and the quest.

He grew fond of it. Kept it as a memento. His heart knew this, even if his head did not wish to partake in that knowledge.

_Him. Again._

 

Older now, broader, angrier, darker. Where was the tousled mop of red? Where was the defiant jut of the chin, or the gentle warmth in his eyes? They were different now. Glowed with anger, not kindness. Shoulders broad enough to carry his weight, too. They were made in anger, not hope. This whole being, body, mind and soul, was steeped in it. And yet burned with purity of will so familiar that Wukong couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Magina!”  


 

It’s been a hundred years. Or maybe less. He tended to forget the years and months. Days were hours, seconds were lifetimes. A war to claim all of their lives carried such quirks with it.

A hundred years since he’s heard that voice and seen that face. The friendship of a different lifetime, the adventure of a man no longer alive within him. A hundred years since he could smile in the face of adversity. He’s lived a hundred lifetimes between then and now, has died and risen countless days and nights, seen more battles than an ancient spear, has defied death like a pesky nightmare.

It’s been a hundred years since...

“Magina!”

 

The voice he had forgotten in his new life, it called to him now. Granted, who it belonged to was also bounding over to his side, swirling around on his staff and entirely ignoring his personal space. Sun Wukong. The Monkey King. He was the last piece of this elaborate puzzle he didn’t understand, and now he was here, along with what remained of Magina’s family, his closest friend and worst enemy. The circle was complete. Everything Magina needed, had seen, heard, it was right here. The ancients had brought his whole world to this war for him to kill. His world, condensed to this battlefield. The Ancients made it personal, sparing no expense to expose and belittle what complicated ties he had in the world. First, his father, then, his worst enemy, then, his lost brother...Every new opponent slunk on the field only to endanger the serenity of anger Magina had made himself to be.

Except that Sun Wukong was here, in the Radiant, at his side, at his chest, arms slung around his midriff and face crushed to the cold metal of his belt, phoenix feathers tickling Magina’s face with genuine joy in his voice.

 

“Wukong...” he muttered, unwilling to return the gesture with so many eyes upon them. It was uncomfortable, and they'd ask why the new hero seemed so attached to the elusive, aloof Anti-Mage.

Especially Nortrom looked like a large question mark, so Magina blinked out of sight with his new, monkey-shaped accessory.

 

“Oh, you picked up some tricks of your own!”

 

“It’s not a trick. It’s my will alone.”

 

Wukong squeezed tighter the longer Magina didn’t return the touch, which meant until he heard the shining blades the man carried hit the ground and felt hands in his fur, on his head, gently at the circlet.

 

“Why did you keep this? I set you free.”

 

“I’m a king. I need my crown."

 

Magina let the golden circlet wander through his fingers without pulling it from the soft fur of his old, old friend.

 

"Besides, that one was given to me by a friend. It would be terribly rude to throw it away."

 

"This isn't a game, Wukong. Why did you come?"

 

"To fight. To win. To prove I am a hero. What are you doing here?"

 

Magina looked into the distance, above Wukong's head and over to the impenetrable forest of the battlefield.

"To put an end to it."

A scuttle and swinging motion later, Sun Wukong was beside him, clinging to his cudgel and trying to see what Magina was in fact, looking at.

"An end to what? The war?"

 

"Magic. I'm putting an end to magic. All of it."

Magina's conviction lent steel to his voice and he could feel his fists tighten as his resolve washed over his face. A permanently displeased visage kept enemies intimidated and would-be friends at bay. He preferred it to be like that.

 

"Does that include lovable, talking monkey royalty?"

Wukong didn't sound half as impressed as he ought to be, but somehow, it made Magina forget a little of the world on his shoulders. He reached out, as he used to do when he was much, much younger.

 

"I guess we'll see. You're magic too, but you're just chaos, not evil."

A fluffy, warm tail wrapped around his fingers and Wukong jabbed him in the side. At least his little would-be monk Magina was not completely gone beneath the terribly stiff facade of his adult life.

"You should smile more...Anti-Mage."

 

Magina didn't suppress the tiny quirk of his lips, the smallest of smiles in reward for Wukong's upbeat presence. Maybe things wouldn't be so dire anymore, with the Monkey King on their side. At his side, just like the golden old days of his greatest journey.

 

"Maybe with you around, I will."


End file.
